Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics super hero Captain America directed by Joe Johnston. It will star former Fantasic Four's Johnny Storm actor Chris Evans as Steven Rodgers aka Captain America, Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull and Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter Sypnosis After being deemed unfit for military service, Steve Rogers volunteers for a top secret research project that turns him into Captain America, a superhero dedicated to defending USA ideals. Plot In the present day, scientists in the Arctic uncover a mysterious object with a red, white and blue motif. In March 1942, Nazi officer Johann Schmidt and his men invade a castle in Tønsberg, Norway, to steal a mysterious tesseract which Schmidt calls "the jewel of Odin's treasure room." In New York City, Brooklyn native Steve Rogers is rejected for World War II military duty as 4F for the fifth time. Rogers' friend, Sgt. James "Bucky" Barnes, takes Rogers to the Modern Marvels of Tomorrow exhibition, where Rogers slips into a recruitment center for another attempt at enlisting. When Barnes attempts to dissuade him, Rogers' fervent conviction about serving his country catches the ear of expatriate Bavarian scientist Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), who is with the U.S. government's Strategic Scientific Reserve. He recruits Rogers to a squad of soldiers at Camp Lehigh in New York state. There, under Colonel Chester Phillips and SSR officer Peggy Carter, one will be chosen as the first in a "super-soldier" experiment. Phillips suggests Gilmore Hodge, but an act of self-sacrificing bravery by Rogers convinces Erskine to use Rogers. In Europe, Schmidt and scientist Arnim Zola attempt to harness the power of the cube-like tesseract. In a secret lab behind a Brooklyn antique store, Erskine and others gather with Senator Brandt and U.S. State Department employee Fred Clemson as Rogers is given micro-injections of serum and then doused with what Erskine calls "vita-rays". Rogers emerges from a chamber tall and muscular — and his abilities are put to the test immediately when Clemson is exposed as assassin Heinz Kruger who kills Erskine. Rogers pursues Kruger in his car, but the spy flees to his submarine after Carter kills the driver. Rogers captures Kruger, but the spy commits suicide with a cyanide capsule. With the experiment dead, Brandt has Rogers don a colorful costume for a gaudy War Bonds promotional stage show that leads to one unimpressed soldier audience in Italy, November 1943, jeering Rogers. When he hears Barnes is among a number of soldiers captured by Schmidt, also known as the Red Skull, Rogers convinces Carter and Stark to fly him behind enemy lines for a solo rescue mission. Breaking into what turns out to be a base for the Skull's private terrorist group, HYDRA, he frees Barnes and the others, memorizes a map of HYDRA bases, and briefly confronts the Skull — Erskine's first super-soldier before the scientist's escape. The Skull and Zola retreat, and Rogers returns the men to base, along with high-tech guns that use tesseract energy. To destroy HYDRA's bases, Rogers recruits a team consisting of Barnes, Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan, and Gabe Jones, Jim Morita, James Falsworth, and Jacques Dernier. Adopting a circular shield made of a substance Stark calls vibranium, which absorbs vibrations, Rogers and his squad take out all but one base. Finally, Rogers and Barnes zipline onto a train transporting Zola; during the ensuing battle, Barnes seemingly falls to his death in a gorge. Rogers, using information Phillips has gleaned from Zola, leads the commandos to the Skull's final redoubt. Rogers scrambles onto the Skull's jet as it takes off on a mission to obliterate the U.S. using the tesseract energy, and eventually confronts the Skull. The Skull attempts to use the tesseract but instead disintegrates into light that shoots into space. The tesseract melts through the plane and falls to Earth. Rogers, as Carter listens on radio, crashes the plane into the ocean to prevent it from reaching the United States. Shortly after, the Allies celebrate V-E Day. Carter, Stark, and Phillips manage to recover the tesseract, but are unable to locate Rogers. In the present-day, Rogers awakens in a room designed to appear as if he were still in the 1940s. Deducing the truth and escaping to Times Square, Rogers learns from S.H.I.E.L.D. leader Nick Fury that he has been asleep for nearly 70 years, and they had wanted to acclimate his reentry into modern times. Rogers' only response is that he is late for a dance he had promised to Carter 70 years ago. Cast *Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America *Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt / Red Skull *Hayley Atwell as Margaret "Peggy" Carter *Sebastian Stan as James "Bucky" Barnes *Tommy Lee Jones as Gen. Chester Phillips *Stanley Tucci as Abraham Erskine *Neil McDonough as Dum Dum Dugan *Toby Jones as Arnim Zola *Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark *Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury *Richard Armitage as Heinz Kruger *Natalie Dormer as Private Lorraine *Derek Luke as Gabe Jones *Kenneth Choi as Jim Morita *JJ Feild as Montgomery Falsworth/Union Jack *Bruno Ricci as Jacques Dernier *Amanda Righetti as a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Planets *Earth Locations Countries *United States of America *Germany *England *Norway *Italy *Russia Places *New York City Other *Strategic Scientific Reserve Facility *Camp Lehigh *HYDRA Facility #1 *HYDRA Facility #2 *HYDRA Facility #3 Vehicles *Captain America's Motorcycle *HYDRA Bomber *HYDRA Tank *HYDRA Helicopter *Johann Schmidt's Car Organizations *HYDRA *Allied Powers **United States Armed Forces **British Army *Axis Powers **Nazis *Strategic Scientific Reserve *Howling Commandos Quotes Trivia *The final shortlist for the lead role consisted of Garrett Hedlund, Channing Tatum, Scott Porter, Mike Vogel, Ryan Phillippe, Sebastian Stan, Chris Evans, Wilson Bethel, John Krasinski, Michael Cassidy, Chace Crawford and Jensen Ackles. Both Kellan Lutz and Alexander Skarsgård auditioned for the lead role, while Sam Worthington and Will Smith were in early talks. The role went to Chris Evans, who has already played another Marvel superhero, Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007). *Emily Blunt turned down the role of Peggy Carter. Other actresses considered for the role were Alice Eve and Keira Knightley. *Jon Favreau was originally chosen by Marvel Studios to direct this film, but he chose to direct Iron Man (2008). Nick Cassavetes, was also considered to direct this film, and had been set as a director for Iron Man (2008) in December 2004. *Despite being "The First Avenger", it is the last solo Avenger film to be released before the team-up film, The Avengers (2012). *According to producer Avi Arad: "The biggest opportunity with Captain America is as a man 'out of time', coming back today, looking at our world through the eyes of someone who thought the perfect world was small-town America. Sixty years go by, and who are we today? Are we better?" *Joe Johnston was chosen as the film's director for his work on the period adventure films The Rocketeer (1991), October Sky (1999) and Hidalgo (2004) . *Louis Leterrier viewed some of the concept art for the film, and was impressed enough to offer his services, but Marvel Studios turned him down. However, his film The Incredible Hulk (2008) provides a small appearance by Captain America: a deleted scene set in the Arctic. *Screenwriter David Self, who wrote a draft of the script, claimed Captain America was his favorite childhood superhero: "My dad told me I could one day be Captain America." *Chris Evans almost turned down the role of Captain America. *The film was originally going to be film in Manhattan Beach, California but moved it to London, England due of the tax breaks to films costing over $75 million. *Captain America was put on hold during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. *Tommy Lee Jones who plays Colonel Phillips in this film, also appeared as Two-Face/Harvey Dent in Batman Forever (1995). Both Captain America and Batman faced off in the Marvel vs. DC crossover in 1996. *Originally cameo appearances were planned in the film for James Logan Howlett (Wolverine) and Erik Lensherr (Magneto), who were present during World War II (Logan was a soldier and Lensherr was a prisoner of war). These cameos were scrapped due to rights issues. *This is the fifth live-action adaptation of the superhero. The first was the serial, Captain America (1944); the second was the TV movie Captain America (1979) and its sequel, Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979), and the fourth was the theatrical film Captain America (1990). Chris Evans fifth comic book movie after the two Fantastic Four movies, The Losers (2010) and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010). *The Red Skull searches for a powerful artifact, the Cosmic Cube. In Transformers (2007), Hugo Weaving voiced the villain Megatron, who also searched for a similar cosmic cube-shaped relic (the AllSpark). *The final Paramount Pictures film produced with Marvel Studios. Disney bought the rights to The Avengers (2012) and Iron Man 3 (2013). External Links Category:Feature films Category:Captain America